Almighty painter

Chapter 783 Imitation
Why are they so similar?
In the conversation just now, from the first few brief exchanges, Cui Xiaoming understood that Gu Weijing had probably never read any specific related works by Wu Guanzhong.

This was also an important reason why he was able to gain the upper hand in words at the beginning.

Therefore.

It is impossible that Gu Weijing saw a few words in Wu Guanzhong's art article from somewhere and then casually repeated them as his own.

He was truly inspired by the painting "Water Village People".

Why are they so similar?

Why are they so similar?

How could it be the person next to him, it was Gu Weijing, who said something almost identical to Wu Guanzhong in just a few words!

It's not hard to imagine.

Cui Xiaoming's heart was filled with shocking emotions at this moment.

He was like a frog at the bottom of a well, running and jumping desperately, climbing and jumping on the wet well wall again and again.

One day.

He approached the wellhead vaguely, and vaguely touched another wider world.

But he was surprised to find that there was already another younger frog crawling on the smooth bluestone above the well, quietly puffing its cheeks towards the moonlight over the distant lotus pond.

It sits there motionless and nonchalantly, yet it has already touched a height that Cui Xiaoming has never touched before - the true meaning of art.

How could Cui Xiaoming not be jealous and go crazy?

How could he not be as dull as a wooden man?
[——Brushstrokes without connotation are [Beau (beautiful)], brushstrokes with connotation are [Joli (beautiful)], Beau is easy to imitate, but Joli is not easy to imitate. ]

[——There are two types of works: Beau and Joli. If someone says someone's work is Beau, it may seem like praise, but it is actually criticism. You need to be careful.]

When Cui Xiaoming was studying Wu Guanzhong in the past, he did not pay too much attention to this sentence when he read it. He just thought it was an essay record of his predecessor during his study abroad. He glanced at it and quickly passed it over.

Right now.

Gu Weijing's words struck in his memory, on this line of words, like a big pestle hitting a huge bronze bell, shattering Cui Xiaoming's thoughts.

Hiccup.

The little bug moved from the core to the skin and finally broke through the flesh.

There were no green bugs crawling out of it, only deep eyes.

Beams of sunlight shone from inside to outside, and then shone out from the hole at the other end.

It was no longer a hole slowly drilled out by the soft worm of doubt, but a sharp arrow of art that pierced him in an instant.

"Bodhisattva."

Gu Weijing said softly.

"There has always been a saying that literary and artistic creation should pay attention to Guanyin Bodhisattva."

He smiled helplessly and said, "I really don't know how to translate this into English in a clever and interesting way."

"To put it simply, Guanyin Bodhisattva is an important deity in Eastern Buddhism. But this statement has little to do with religion itself. Rather, his honorific title in Chinese can be split into four different words."

"Guan, Shi, Yin, Pusa."

Gu Weijing looked at the tourists around him.

"Guan means to see and to know how to see. In the art industry, seeing is called collecting styles. Collecting styles is not only about collecting scenery, but also about seeing all kinds of things in the world. Shi, this word can be understood as the world - 'the world', but I think it is better to understand it as the so-called hustle and bustle of the world here. It is not enough to just see, you have to understand the ways of the world, feel the joys and sorrows, and listen to the hustle and bustle of the world. Just seeing is not enough, you also have to be able to read, listen, and understand."

“Yin means music, and it can also be understood as beat and rhythm.”

He recalled what Cao Xuan's teacher taught Cao Xuan.

Knowledge does not exist independently.

If it is the truth of art, then it must be universal and applicable to everyone and everything.

It does not change due to culture, race or region.

An appropriate opportunity, the Van Gogh described by Miss Elena, the teacher seen in Cao Xuan’s impression, the feelings of Gu Weijing when he painted “Good Luck Orphanage in the Sunlight”, the feelings of Gu Weijing when he painted “Human Noise”, what he felt in Van Gogh’s paintings, what he felt in Wu Guanzhong’s “Water Village”, what he felt in Cao Lao’s “Buddha Worship and Dharma Protection Picture”…

All kinds of things here.

It all came together.

"It's about the style and technique of art. The painting should be like a bard's article, in line with the rhythm of nature. Or, as you just said, it's like a game of colors, weaving dots, lines and surfaces like a musician composing a piece of music."

"The last concept is Pusa, which is the easiest and the most difficult to understand. Bodhisattva, Buddha, God, angel, Virgin Mary, you can give any interpretation you want - it doesn't matter, it only depends on whether you can feel what others feel and feel what others feel."

"It depends on whether you can face the hustle and bustle of the world."

“You must have rich senses and kind beliefs. Be compassionate and save people from suffering. Can your work bring some kind of power? Can it be like a steel needle piercing blood, piercing your own heart and the hearts of others?”

“This kind of work is real and will shine.”

Gu Weijing looked at Cui Xiaoming's face.

“You said that Mr. Wu Guanzhong bloomed here like a flower. Yes, but he is not just a flower. There are many works like flowers, but the artist’s job is not to plant seeds in the soil, but to plant seeds in the heart…”

Gu Weijing's voice and Gu Weijing's words rang in his ears.

Another voice, some other words, also rang in my ears.

[——I have been in Europe for a year... I have seen myself... As Mr. Dayu said, when you get tired of tea, wine and coffee, you can try stinky water and poison. Moreover, tea, wine and coffee are not what the people of our motherland crave... I don't want to choose a career as a flower painter with my life... How to paint is just to pursue a little visual lightness, to decorate the emptiness of a corner of the room... Any tree or flower can have the same effect. Why waste so much precious manpower and material resources——]

[——The purpose of painting should be to be able to truly and vividly imprint every drop of blood, every whip mark, and every scar deeply in the hearts of the people at that time and place, so that people who wanted to shed tears but couldn't shed tears can shed tears...Mr. Lu Xun alone achieved this function in his writing——]

【——Coming to Paris... I look everywhere, listen everywhere... The pleasure-seeking here has nothing to do with me... The wild dance of red lights and wine is too unfamiliar to me... The happiness created by the painters here is just a fake art of happiness... My parents, teachers, friends, neighbors, and thousands of compatriots are all looking at me with open eyes! I seem to have tasted Mr. Lu Xun's determination to abandon his medical studies and return to China to engage in literary and artistic work——】

Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-Ki…

Over the years, Cui Xiaoming has been copying the master's works like a hungry sponge, studying the master's skills and style.

I don’t know how many paintings I have drawn.

I don’t know how many books I have read.

He values ​​art more than life.
Cui Xiaoming read eagerly the insights on techniques written by the senior painters.

How to arrange tones, how to shape forms, from big relationships to painting details, how to understand points, lines, and surfaces, and how to understand color relationships.

Paintings with cool tones and paintings with warm tones - their visual characteristics, and how different artists interpret them.

……

Cui Xiaoming dare not be negligent in these aspects.

He studied the details of every painting by his predecessors who chose to combine the East and the West, and tried to figure out the true meaning between the lines of text. He was as pious as an alchemy apprentice who carefully opened an ancient notebook, hoping to find the secret formula for replacing pure gold from ordinary iron from the slips of paper interspersed between each page, among those obscure eagles, lions, fish and dragons (note).

(Note: Ancient European alchemy notes were generally written in code that outsiders could not understand. For example, Newton. In the alchemy notes left by Sir Newton in his later years, which can be regarded as academic black history, eagles, lions, fish and dragons are usually used to refer to the four basic elements of air, earth, water and fire.)
But in other ways.

Cui Xiaoming often just passed by quickly.

The road is too long, life is too busy, and time is too tight.

He is a man who is determined to complete a magnificent transformation before the age of thirty.

Physics students study the theory of general relativity, and they don't need to study how many girlfriends Einstein had, or whether that messy lion-like head was natural or a deliberate shape.

Cui Xiaoming also has no time to waste on studying the daily food, clothing, housing, transportation, joys and sorrows of his predecessors.

It would be too energy-consuming to interpret obscure art theories, and there was really no need for him to stare at other people's letters and diaries.

If you have the spare time to read the diary of the mentally ill Van Gogh, wouldn’t it be more enjoyable and exciting to watch two episodes of the TV series "The Vampire Diaries" with all the handsome men and beautiful women?

Those words that he read casually in a cursory manner were forgotten after he flipped through them quickly.

Cui Xiaoming thought he had forgotten about cleaning long ago.

No.

It turns out some words are powerful.

You think you will forget it after reading it once, but in fact, after reading it once, it will be imprinted deep in your heart.

Just waiting for the moment when he is pierced by the dazzling sunlight.

It turns out that some truths are actually very simple and plain.

The alchemical secret of art may be just these few lines of plain words.

The predecessors have already drawn it and said it.

But he turned a blind eye and turned a deaf ear.

If these words were said by Gu Weijing, if these words were said by the young man of the same age next to him, he would naturally think that the other party was trying to confuse his mind, spreading rumors to mislead the public, and regard them as worthless.

Cui Xiaoming could just throw a tantrum and refuse to give in.

Cui Xiaoming could naturally ignore everything Gu Weijing said.

What if Wu Guanzhong himself had said this?

How could Cui Xiaoming not be speechless, listening with respect or... fear?
How could he not feel as if he were pierced by thousands of arrows, and be easily pierced by what Gu Weijing saw on the screen?

Cui Xiaoming was pierced by thousands of arrows.

At this moment, he suddenly realized that in Gu Weijing's painting, in his "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sunlight", he had also felt something vague and indescribable.

That bright, lustrous, and sparkling temperament is present in Van Gogh's paintings, but not in his "New Three Bodies of Buddha".

The truth has been placed before my eyes time and time again.

But he thought it was a filter or an illusion.

turn out to be--

What makes Gu Weijing better than him is not only his painting technique. Perhaps, his works are actually closer to true masters of art than his works have ever been.

Could it be that I am the one who took the wrong path?
Gu Weijing’s voice was still echoing in my ears.

“Although the painting styles are completely different, the similar painting spirit and sense of power are similar. The works are also more like being filled with the texture of the painting rather than the painting techniques. They also use ordinary paintings to create meanings beyond mediocrity... Wu Guanzhong's works always remind me of another painter who likes to paint rural countryside. Do you know who it is?”

Swish!
The short Mr. Rikiya Ameda stood on tiptoe behind the crowd and raised his hand.

"I know, Van Gogh, it's Van Gogh!"

Regrettably.

Gu Weijing did not throw a prize-winning guessing game to the audience this time. He had already turned his eyes back to the screen in front of him, and then asked and answered his own questions.

"Like Van Gogh, of course."

"The passion of love and the gorgeousness of color are fused together, but it is definitely not a work with erotic connotations like the Rococo style works, and it is not even a work about gorgeous scenery, but about the most ordinary scenery."

“The painter puts a lot of emotion into it, making it extraordinary. He expresses the clay with deep feelings and a strong desire to bring something to the art.”

"I think this is probably why Mr. Wu Guanzhong is praised by the academic community as the Van Gogh of China."

Cui Xiaoming clenched his fists slightly in his pockets.

This time.

He could no longer pretend to relax him nonchalantly, nor could he put on a nonchalant smile on his face.

Lost.

He knew he lost.

This was a debate he could not win. He was not debating with Gu Weijing, he seemed to be debating with Wu Guanzhong.

Gu Weijing's voice echoed in the special exhibition hall, and the entire exhibition hall resonated at this moment.

The works on the central exhibition stand still exuded a bright luster, which spread along Gu Weijing's palm as he pointed at the works, and climbed onto his profile, making half of his body emit the same color as the fill light.

Bright, vivid, burning luster -

It's as if the passion of love and the splendor of color are blended together.

Gu Weijing's facial features were not gorgeous at all, but now, in Cui Xiaoming's eyes, he seemed to have turned into a priest in the Greek Pantheon.

The booth is the altar to the Muse.

The other person stretched out his hand and used the torch in his hand to reach the flame on the altar, and then the strong flame also painted him with a similar luster.

Cui Xiaoming was so jealous and so resentful.

A man who had knelt devoutly under the altar for twenty years, but was treated coldly and contemptuously by the gods in the clouds, easily bestowed warm fire on the jealousy and resentment of his successor who had just entered the temple for a while.

He has been studying the works of senior masters for twenty years.

And Gu Weijing——

He just stood by the booth for a short while.

Why!
Cui Xiaoming's resentment seemed to set Gu Weijing on fire. The resentment flowed along Gu Weijing's body, even through his fingers, and quickly climbed onto Wu Guanzhong's oil painting.

then.

His hatred seemed to ignite Wu Guanzhong's paintings as well.

Resentment is fire.

It was not the bright, proud fire that shone on Gu Weijing, but the eerie fire that enveloped the battlefield, with thick smoke billowing, and burned the entire ancient city of Troy, the entire ancient city of Greece, along with all the temples of the Pantheon, into rubble and ruins.

The fire that roasted Van Gogh's arms, twisting, charring and deforming them.

He finally stopped laughing.

This strong emotion almost drove Cui Xiaoming crazy.

"No, I totally disagree with you."

He spoke very quickly, his lips trembling, like a machine gun that was lacking in oil and was spitting out flames a little awkwardly.

"No matter what you say, it's all empty talk and meaningless. Just like your paintings—"

this moment.

He became an angry gambler who threw away his playing cards in anger after losing the game.

No.

He didn't lose.

Cui Xiaoming can’t lose… He still has to win the exhibition, he still has to win the competition with Gu Weijing, he still has to sign with Gagosian, and there is Longmen… waiting for him to leap over.

He couldn't bear the consequence of losing.

Therefore, Cui Xiaoming chose to win by any means necessary and at any cost.

He stared with his eyes wide open, and flames engulfed Gu Weijing's face in front of him.

There is a difference whether these words were said by Gu Weijing or Wu Guanzhong.

If these words were said by Wu Guanzhong, Cui Xiaoming would have no reason to defend himself.

If these words were said by Gu Weijing——

Cui Xiaoming no longer wanted to reason.

"You also want to paint this kind of fusion painting, and I also want to paint this kind of painting. If you are right and I am wrong... Why am I a special guest painter, while your works are only placed in the corners?"

"If you are right and I am wrong, what I said does not make sense—"

Cui Xiaoming gritted his teeth and said, "Why did Cao Xuan personally call me a few months ago and ask my father to teach you how to paint and ask you to imitate me—"

Oh.

The audience was silent for a moment.
Some people didn't understand what this meant, but some people who really understood the meaning of this, such as Newzlan, Rikiya Ameda, several judges and guests, and even the curatorial assistant Bonnie Lampche, all had their eyebrows twitched and held their breath.

Cui Xiaoming's eyebrows were also twitching.

The moment he said this, even he held his breath and his heart was pounding with fear.

He knew that this scene was very ugly.

Even if he won, his win would be extremely undignified and not artistic at all.

Even winning is risky.

Cui Xiaoming knew that it was very rude to mention in public that Cao Xuan had called to ask for advice, especially since his father had rejected him.

The first half of his words was to use the curator to pressure Gu Weijing.

The second half of his words was to use Cao Xuan to pressure Gu Weijing, and even had a little bit of the implication of using Cao Xuan to raise his own status.

If you have a better understanding of art? Why are you an ordinary painter and I am a painter?

If you have a deeper understanding of art, why would Cao Xuan beg you to "imitate" me?

all the time.

Cui Xiaoming is extremely cautious about this issue.

He didn't want to bring Cao Xuan closer, and didn't want to offend Mr. Cao Xuan in any way.

No matter how much he disliked Gu Weijing, Cui Xiaoming had never mentioned this in his previous publicity.

Because that was Cao Xuan.

A painting or words of a top master during his lifetime can easily render him speechless or pierce him with holes.

What’s more, what about another leading figure in the art world, a living person whose net worth is also at the top of the industry?

This is not a gap in status that can be made up by jumping over a dragon gate or signing with Gagosian.

If he wants to reach this kind of god-like figure, he has to jump through the dragon gate a hundred or eighty times like skipping rope.

He really, really, really didn't want to take the risk of angering such a person.

And now.

He still said this.

Cui Xiaoming really had no choice. He had already placed all his bets at the gambling table and he really couldn't afford to lose. Even if it was the Seven Injury Fist that would hurt both the enemy and himself, he had no choice but to fight.

Even if it's a shrew scolding him in the street, he must win.

He was not stupid, but in his rage he just wanted to vent his anger and didn't care about anything else.

Cui Xiaoming felt that Cao Xuan might not care much about this matter. Only very few people knew that the old man came to Singapore for the art exhibition.

But to tell the truth.

What kind of status is he? What kind of status is Cao Xuan?

If he wants to provoke Cao Xuan and make the old man angry, it depends on whether Cui Xiaoming has the qualifications, right?
first.

Cui Xiaoming sincerely hoped that Mr. Cao would be the old senior who was open-minded and humble, and would not care at all about the rumors among them young people.

I've experienced all kinds of things in my life.

With the status of an elderly person.

The fact that Cao Xuan respectfully called his father's cell phone to seek advice indirectly shows that he is an old man who values ​​painting itself more than fame and fortune.

Mr. Cao Xuan might not really care about him speaking out about this.

Secondly.

Even if the old man was a little unhappy, he wouldn't come and step on Cui Xiaoming. To be honest, given the difference in status between the two of them, stepping on Cui Xiaoming to death might even dirty the old man's feet. Sixty years ago, he was talking about art with Picasso.

You’re almost a hundred years old and you come here to step on Cui Xiaoming?
Why bother.

Who the hell is Cui Xiaoming? It’s really not worth it.

If someone were to gossip about you suppressing the younger generation behind your back, wouldn't that tarnish your good reputation for the rest of your life?

of course.

To crush Cui Xiaoming to death, there is definitely no need for Cao Xuan to do it himself. Any one of his top disciples can come out and bring disaster to his entire family.

But when Cui Xiaoming thought of the drawing that Gu Weijing sent to his father's mobile phone, he felt that there might be a loophole that could be exploited.

Besides, his words were mainly directed at Gu Weijing, and Cao Xuan was mainly an introduction, a "third party" to prove his excellent painting skills.

The old man did make a phone call on behalf of Gu Weijing that year, but academic discussions are very common in the painting world. It was only because Cao Xuan's status was too high that it seemed rare.

Maybe the other party will just turn around and forget about it.

It is true that Cui Xiaoming is not worthy of making Cao Xuan angry, but how could Gu Weijing be worthy of making Mr. Cao angry?

(End of this chapter)